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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!news.netspace.net.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.erols.net!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in3.uu.net!news2.new-york.net!main.put.com!not-for-mail From: le@put.com (Louis Epstein) Subject: Re: FBSD Future... X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 950824BETA PL0] X-Nntp-Posting-User: le Lines: 105 Organization: Putnam Internet Services Message-ID: <DzAH2I.J9z@news2.new-york.net> References: <Dz37x9.7vC@news2.new-york.net> <Dz67yE.8I7@interactive.net> <Dz72I8.8M1@news2.new-york.net> <Dz9wyo.6pA@interactive.net> X-Trace: 845335527/23515 X-Nntp-Posting-Host: main.put.com Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 23:25:30 GMT Chris Mauritz (ritz@interactive.net) wrote: : Louis Epstein <le@put.com> wrote: : :)Chris Mauritz (ritz@interactive.net) wrote: : :): Louis Epstein <le@put.com> wrote: : :): :)I gather that 2.1.6 will be released on the net only,not on CDROM,so : :): :)how would one handle an upgrade from 2.1?(No point in going to : :): : :): Do an FTP install. If you've got a reasonably fat pipe to the : :): net, it's rather painless. I did a full install of 2.2-current : :): over our T3 the other day and it only took about 15-20 mins. :-) : : :)So for a 384k...? : : Dunno. If your 384 isn't heavily loaded, it shouldn't take much : longer. So it might vary with time of day...or if I had the news feed shut off. : : :): :)2.1.5 first if 2.1.6 is coming).How long would I have to take my : :): :)ISP down to go to 2.1.6,and get it in shape to honor the 9-12 character : :): :)IDs enabled by a kernel recompile for my 2.1??And what would I actually : :): :)gain by so doing? : :): : :): If you take your entire site down to do that upgrade you're not : :): doing it right. A 486-120 is cheap. Get a spare one and install : :): the new OS on the spare machine. Then, a simple dump/restore : :): cycle with some minor fiddling should be all you need to do. : : :)I have two of them,news and main.Would do them one at a time. : : It's your neck. :-) : : :)News is a backup radius server,so PPP customers could be authenticated : :)while main was busy upgrading,but shell customers and mail would be : :)out for that time. : : You've just finished telling us that your news server can't keep : up. Why are you running other services on it that you could put : on your other box? That's about the only other thing running on news...my news box is much less multi-tasked than Drew's,for example. : Running an ISP on a pair of 486 boxes seems somewhat silly given : how ridiculously cheap Pentium and Pentium Pro boxes have become. I've planned all along to move to 6x86es when I got the money. : When you originally cornered me at Unix Expo last year and asked : me what hardware to use, you told me that you already purchased : 486 boxes. At that time I said if you were already stuck with : them to get a lot of memory and the fastest disk controllers and : disks you could afford. Obviously, what you got isn't fast : enough. is 48 MB insufficient memory?What would going to 64 on either box do? (just got an error message today on lack of awap space on main). : If you're getting messages from your provider saying : that articles are being flushed from your queue, that means : your customers are missing a LOT of articles. It really isn't : possible to run an ISP on a shoestring anymore. If you want : to play the game, you really will need to pony up some $$$ and : buy the necessary hardware to get the job done. Last I checked, : a Pentium Pro 200mhz box with 64mb of fast page mode RAM could : be had for about $1500. With the exception of your disk controller, : you should be able to recycle the rest of your hardware. While : you're at it, pick up a pair of Buslogic 946's or 948's and split : your disks among them. That should go a long way towards fixing : your hardware problems. : : There was a time where anyone with a 486 and a 56k could call themselves : an ISP. Those days are gone. : : Good luck. I started with a pair of the fastest 486es and a 384k. I'd like to be breaking even before I add! : :): :)For a got-to-stay-up business like an ISP,it might be better to wait : :): :)for a 2.2.x after 2.2R gets its bug reports dealt with...I guess : :): :)the first such release is at least 9 months off. : :): : :): It might even be better to use BSDI. (ducking) : :): : :): :)(64-bit 3.x is presumably years away still). : :): : :): I guess you'll need to upgrade to something other than your : :): 486-120's then. :-) : : :)Well,yes. : : You'd probably be better off upgrading sooner rather than later. : Our P166 boxes aren't having any problems keeping up. :) I was just over at the Cyrix price-your-own page,they don't have a FreeBSD option under OS(nor a no-OS),but certainly 6x86-P200+ boxes seem quite cheap now.I would be swapping the motherboard and CPU into my big file server cases,farming the 486-120 out to some other function on the LAN(pure-WWW,backup radius,backup DNS?) and relocating some RAM. Would use an multiple controllers if I added any disks to news (might be an idea to dedicate a 2GB SCSI to comp,rec,sci,soc).